Bartending+Challenge


 * || =Bartender Challenge=

Craig Wilsie Scott Crellin || ||

Overview
Close your eyes and imagine the sounds of a bustling restaurant -- forks tapping on plates, clinking glasses, the happy din of diner's conversations. A busy restaurant has an unique energy and can be an exciting and profitable place to work -- and behind the bar is one of the best spots to be. You may think that bartending is an easy gig, but don't be fooled. Bartending requires an intense amount of multi-tasking. To be a bartender in a busy, upscale restaurant you must be: fast, efficient, knowledgeable, and personable. //Bartender Challenge// is a simulation game that puts you behind the bar and on the job! It will help you learn all the tricks of the trade. You will greet and serve the guests at your bar, as well as make drinks for the restaurant. You never know what will be ordered ("Can you make a //Witch's Nipple//?"), or what may happen next (a wine glass just broke in the ice!). But it is the bartender's challenge to handle whatever comes up -- and all with a smile on your face! The better bartending job you do, the more tips you'll earn and the more status you'll receive. Status is important because the best shifts, at the best restaurants, only go to the best bartenders. Could that be you?

Instructional Objective
Through playing this simulation game, players will not only learn drink recipes (ingredients, glassware, garnish), but also become familiar with the dynamics and intangibles of being a bartender. Largely through trial and error, players will learn one of the main keys to being a successful bartender: prioritizing tasks (e.g. what order to make drinks, keeping the bar stocked and clean, balancing your bar guests' drink orders and the servers' orders). Through hints about possible courses of action, the player will learn different solutions to the problems that can arise. This simulation game is designed to simulate on-the-job training. It takes the physical aspect out of the physical job so the player can focus on the mental aspect of it.

Learners

 * //Bartender's Challenge//** is designed for new bartenders in training. It would be appropriate for students enrolled in a bartending school or academy, as well as any restaurant that does its own bar staff training.

Context of Use

 * //Bartender's Challenge//** would primarily be used as a learning extension activity in combination with on-site training at a restaurant or at a bartending school. It is an engaging alternative to studying recipe cards that also teaches how to prioritize bartending tasks. It is designed to be played by an individual player, but could also be used as a demonstration for a group. The simulation would be played multiple times in order to build up drink knowledge and prioritizing skills. Some prior bartending knowledge (e.g. well liquors, different glassware, garnish) would be required to begin on certain levels.

Scope

 * The game focuses on the role of a bartender in serving customers and keeping the bar stocked and in working order. The game's primary screen will be a view of the bar area from the perspective of the bartender. Included will be all of the necessary glasses, ingredients, and equipment that are needed to prepare a wide variety of drinks. Customers will enter and approach the bar to place orders, and drink orders from wait staff will periodically print up for tables they are serving.
 * A bartender's drink reference book will be available which, when clicked on, will display a screen where drink recipes can be looked up.
 * The bartender will progress through a series of levels that increase in difficulty as challenges are mastered. The beginning stages/shifts will include preparing common, easy to make drinks for relatively few customers. The customers will be spaced out so that plenty of time will be available to prepare the drinks. At early levels, customers will also be more patient. As the bartender gains proficiency, he will advance through a series of levels that will challenge him with increasingly more complicated drinks, more frequent customers, and customers who are less patient or have difficult personalities.
 * Progress will be measured by the amount of money the bartender collects in tips from satisfied customers as levels are completed.
 * The drink mixing portion of the game will include pouring the proper ingredients, preparing them correctly with the appropriate glassware, and serving them in a timely manner. Before each stage/shift the bartender will work the service bar, where all they do is mix drinks. Once they complete the service bar shift, they can move on to the main bar where they will practice the same drinks they just learned except now for guests.
 * The customer service portion of the game is intended to give the bartender a chance to experience the sorts of challenging situations that arise when managing a bar, including difficulty with equipment (ice machine, taps, kegs, dishwashers, etc. ) and difficult customers (rude, drunk, impatient, argumentative, etc). Challenging situations will arise in a semi-random time table; at each level, such a situation will have an increasing probability of happening. At the higher levels, it is almost certain that something bad will happen, while at easier levels, you may complete the entire level with nothing untoward occurring. When such a situation arises, a pop-up window will appear, which the bartender must deal with before getting back to the business of making drinks for waiting customers.

Object of the Game
What the players are striving for is to improve their skills and speed to the point that they qualify for more challenging levels, which would be represented by being in a busier, more upscale restaurant than the last. The prices of drinks will be higher, so the opportunity to make more gratuities will increase as well. But when people are paying more, they also expect more complex drinks and more service, so each level increases in difficulty. The game is intended to be played in several sessions, with the goal of reaching more challenging levels and completing them successfully. Beginning levels may take a few minutes to complete, while harder levels may take 5-10 minutes. It is not a game that can be finished and considered complete, it is more of an arcade style of game that should be played frequently at first to gain mastery of controls and improve knowledge of drink mixing. After becoming proficient, a player may want to return to the game periodically for practice or for fun.

Competing Products
An internet search revealed four different bartending games that are widely available to play online or to download at no charge as well as a multitude of games belonging to the 'time management' genre of online games. Time management games include restaurant themed games as well as many differently themed games as well, including wedding planning, gardening, and more. Three of the bartending games are very basic

This game falls into a category of games that is widely available for the free download or play online that is called 'time management games'. There is a wide array of these games that are set in restaurants

The game to the left, Bartender at AGAME.COM, was very difficult to understand, I could find no directions telling me what to do, so I tried mixing several basic drinks that I thought I was familiar with. None of them were judged acceptable by the discerning bartender figure that you see. This game definitely does no teach the player how to create any drinks, not to mention that it does not address any of the other bartending factors that come into play in our game.



This bartender game was probably the most popular one available judging by the number of sites that it appeared on from the google search I conducted. This one has a perspective that is similar to the one we might imagine seeing in our game- a view from behind the bar, but it is a game that is designed purely for entertainment, and the drinks that are prepared are extremely basic.

The third bartender game is also designed with entertainment in mind. Unlike the last it does involve some mixing of complicated recipes, however they are not real drinks. The drinks are represented by the picture over the heads of the bar patrons and they are mixed by clicking the colored glasses in front of the bartender in the correct order. The only other skill this game requires is sliding the drinks down the length of the bar.

The last bartending game I played was called 'Drunken Master'. It has many of the features that the plan for our bartending game includes. A series of customers appear at the bar and order a variety of drinks that you have to prepare for them. You have to select the correct glass, pour the correct ammounts of each ingredient, and serve your customers before time runs out. If you don't remember the correct ingredients, you can look them up, but that takes extra time that you may not have. A surly old bartending tutor is there to coach you through the various stages of the game, and as in ours, the game progresses through a serious of increasingly difficult levels. It also includes another feature that we hadn't planned on adding to ours-that of performing tricks to entertain customers. Throwing bottles around is probably not something that we want to teach bartender trainees, so I don't think we'll be including this feature in our game. This game does a good job of teaching how to mix an assortment of drinks, but it doesn't really address the complex situations that arise behind a bar. It also comes down to this game primarily being about entertainment, where ours plans to be focused on training.

Design Details
 //Universal Elements// The look of //Bartender Challenge// will be photorealistic as opposed to cartoonish, simply for the fact that even though it has game elements it is meant to be a realistic simulation. Other similar bartender games available are cartoonish, mostly humorous, and solely for fun. This game will be fun, but its main focus is to teach mental bartending skills. The degree of photorealism will be determined by the funding available, but it certainly should be more realistic than //Drunken Masters//. It should have the realistic look of a restaurant, with the immediate bar area in focus and the background restaurant area out of focus. The game will have ambient restaurant noise and light music as background sound. There will be regular bartending sounds that occur as drinks are being made (scoop in the ice, ice in the glass, pouring liquor, glass being set down, etc.). When guests come and sit at the bar, they will speak to the bartender. The printer will also make a distinct sound to let the bartender know that he/she needs to make drinks for a server. The player's point of view while playing //Bartender Challenge// will be that of the bartender. The player will see what a bartender would see: the bar, the equipment, bartender's hands, the guests. The screen view will be panoramic, panning to the left or right by the mouse cursor.

//Specific Elements// Play begins with having a "warm-up" shift at the service bar. Service bar shifts are primarily for learning drinks, learning to keep your bar area stocked, and building speed. The service bar is smaller than the main bar and only makes drinks for the servers. A printer will print up each order that will be shown in a pop-up window. If the player does not know how to make the drink, they can click on the RECIPES tab to find out.

Since the game is more about the mental and social aspect of the job, the "physical" tasks will be more automatic. For example, a guest orders a rum and coke tall. The player will simply need to click on the things he/she needs to make the drink, not actually guide the hands. So the player would click on a glass and your hand will automatically pick up a glass and set it on the bar mat. You would then click on the ice scoop and your hand will automatically put ice in the glass. Click on the bottle of rum, and the hand will reach for it and pour the necessary amount in the glass. The player will not have to control the hand or make it pour or to do a "pour count" (control the amount of liquor being poured), both of which are more physical aspects of the job. What this game is designed for is to teach the important mental "tips" of bartending. These "tips" will be described on a //Tricks of the Trade// lesson card. These lesson cards will teach things like: time-savers, points of service, trouble shooting, etc. The //Tricks of the Trade// tutorial will be displayed on a pop-up window before every shift, whether it is service or main bar. Service bar lessons will be drink and speed oriented; main bar lessons will be more about customer service and troubleshooting. For example, on a service bar shift the lesson may be a time-saving skill: how to use both hands simultaneously to make a drink. The tutorial card will explain that if the player clicks on the glass and then the ice quickly, one right after the other, then the hands will work together. The left hand will pick the glass and as it is moving it towards the bar mat the right hand will be scooping ice and putting it into the glass simultaneously, thus saving time. The lessons will also build upon each other. the next service bar lesson may be how to pour drinks faster by pouring with one hand and using the soda gun with the other (again reinforcing the idea of using both hands simultaneously). The tutorial card will explain how to do this (click on the bottle and the gun quickly). Then for the rest of the shift, the player will be practicing drinks that have one liquor and a mixer in them (gin and tonic, rum and coke, 7 and 7, etc.).

The service bar shifts are somewhat short, but the bartender will still has the opportunity to make "tips". The tips earned depend on how quickly the drinks are made. Servers are always in a hurry to get their drinks, so speed is important and directly effects your tips. Each time the printer prints up a drink ticket to be made, a timer will start, showing how long it is taking you to make the drink and the potential tip you can make. The longer it takes to make the drink, the more your tip decreases. A tip counter will add up your tips as you play. The purpose of the service bar shifts are to provide some scaffolding for the player because the skills learned and practiced there will also be needed at the main bar, where there will be guests to take care of too. After you complete the service bar shift, you will move on to the main bar. Once there, the lessons will be more geared towards customer service and troubleshooting. When occasions occur for you to speak to a guest, you can click on the TALK tab and a menu of options will pop up. Depending on what you say to the guest, your tip form them will either go up or down. In front of each guest is a tip meter, similar to the one on the server tickets. Similar to a //Trick of the Trade// lesson card, from time to time a Trouble Shooter card will pop up unexpectedly. It will describe a situation that will have to dealt with. To solve whatever the problem is, you will have to choose from a menu of choices (similar to clicking on the TALK tab). Often you will have to speak with the guest(s) if they will have to wait while a problem is being fixed. Whether the guest is pleased or displeased will be reflected in the tip meter.

The more lessons you learn and practice, the more efficient you will become. The efficient you become, the faster you will serve guests and servers and your tip totals will go up. As you earn more tips, you will qualify for busier shifts with more difficult drinks.

 //Technical Elements// Because our goal is developing a game that looks as much like a real bar as possible, and because we wish to avoid the cartoonish look of the related games, our game should be developed with the Unity program. Unity provides the ability to render the detailed, life-like look that we are going for as well as incorporating the multiple levels of difficulty and different backgrounds and objects that the game requires.

In order make the game available to the widest possible audience of prospective bartenders, we would also take advantage of Unity's ability to deploy to either stand alone Mac or PC systems or as a web-based game that would work with all of the major browsers.

Images could be created for the game in just about any file format, and our choice as to which to use would depend on the level of detail needed to achieve our goal of realism. High resolution JPEG images would be used for backgrounds and objects which require detail, while other formats with smaller file sized could be used for our bartending recipe screen, for example. Audio files could be imported in WAV or MP3 format; Unity supports both. 3D objects such as the bar in the foreground, bottles, glasses, customers, etc. could also be created using a wide variety of formats, Unity supports over a dozen major file types. This would allow developers to use the most appropriate for the image and/or the one that they are most experienced with.

Motivational Issues
One of the motivational strengths of this game is the overarching goal. It is designed explicitly to teach beginning bartenders knowledge of drinks and how to handle unpredictable bartending situations, and its audience is beginning bartenders who have the same goal in mind. According to Making Learning Fun (Malone, Lepper), this is "The feature that was most highly correlated of its nature, the game could be considered to not be intrinsically motivated, as it is designed to be a game that prospective bartenders are asked to play, whereas a true intrinsically motivating game would be one that they would //choose// to play as opposed to being instructed to do so." However, one might also argue that those interested in becoming bartenders would choose to play this game because of their interest regardless of whether they were instructed to do so.

Further intrinsically motivating aspects of this game its use of endogenous embellishments. Sound effects that are relevant to the situation will be used. The sound of a ticket being printed signifying a new task, pouring sounds, and ice clinking in glasses are all appropriate to the environment. There will be no artificial fanfare when the player successfully completes a task, a customer may say, "Thank you," or simply place money in a tip jar or on the bar. Score is kept by how much money the player has received in tips.

The game also closely follows the ARCS model's four factors of attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (Keller, Suzuki). We hope to gain our learners' attention by providing a game experience with a realistic and lifelike setting (keeping in mind its goal of training real bartenders), as opposed to entertaining the players of the game with funny or silly graphics and sound effects. As was previously mentioned, relevance is one of the strong points of our game, as its goal aligns exactly with the assumed goals of bartending students who will be playing it. The confidence component of the ARCS model refers to the idea that people have a desire to feel like they are good at a task, that the actions they take have an impact on the result, and that they are reasonably likely to succeed. For this reason, //Bartending Challenge// begins at a very basic level and provides numerous supports to the novice player. As they player gains in skill and confidence, the game becomes progressively harder. There are some components that are random, but the player retains the control in how he/she reacts to them. Finally, the satisfaction component of the ARCS model is likely to be quite satisfied by our game design for the same reason that it is relevant. Our learners, through repetition and practice, are quite likely to gain knowledge of mixed drinks, which is exactly their expectation for playing the game. Provided that the game design is implemented well, the satisfaction element should be present for our group of learners.

====Finally, we hope that this game meets "The Conditions of Flow" (Csikszentmilhalyi) and provides an experience that the player can immerse themselves in. A potential bartender will find himself engaged and sufficiently challenged by the game. Because the game is designed to become progressively more difficult as the bartender becomes more proficient and knowledgeable, the player will constantly find himself at a level that matches his ability, preventing him from becoming bored with the game or frustrated by its difficulty, two conditions that could push him out of "flow".====

Design Process
 When I was first trying to come up with an idea for this assignment, I immediately began thinking of content standards for 4th grade. Usually I try to do projects that can be used in my own class. I initially came up with an idea for teaching about the Kumeyaay and how things changed for them when they came in contact with Spanish missionaries. My idea was to make a game that couldn't be won, but I wasn't sure it would actually be any fun. So I continued to think about other possibilities.

Since I knew that this game would not actually make it all the way to production, I decided I didn't need to design something for 4th graders. I began to consider game possibilities for adults. I also considered what content areas I had enough knowledge about that I would feel qualified to teach other adults. I had spent many years as a server, bartender, and manager in the restaurant industry. I gravitated in that direction since I already had the background knowledge. I have often thought about how I'd be a much better manager now, after having learned about teaching and having been a teacher for awhile. I had considered a serving game, to teach customer service and up-selling guests, etc. I eventually settled on the bartending game idea because it seemed like it would be more fun. Bartending seems to most people like it would be a fun job to have. It is fun; but it's also a juggling act and it takes a lot of work to be good at it. Creating a fun game that would teach the things that will help a new bartender become more seasoned seemed like a good idea.

I found looking at similar products to be very helpful. They gave me ideas that I hadn't considered and also showed me what I didn't want the game to be. This helped me make some of the design decisions. Most of the other bartending games were cartoonish. Whereas there is a "fun" element to that, I wanted bartender challenge to be taken a little more seriously. So the decision to make the game look photorealistic wa made. Some of the other games required more manipulation of the bottles, you could also learn to toss the bottles up in the air. Again, that can be fun stuff but not really the focus of learning for this game. The fun of this game will come from the different situations (guest interactions, trouble shooting) the motivation of getting a good score (tips). Most of the feedback was between the partners.  A few comments were left by other classmates, but most just offered opinions about what they liked.  A couple of bartender friends were asked about what kind of things they would include or were important. They liked the idea of random trouble coming up, like a broken glass in the well or a beer keg blowing when you have an order for it. What do you do in those situations? Many situations a bartender will face are not taught, they just happen and you have to stay calm and deal it the best you can. They usually don't happen at the most opportune times either. They felt that this would be a strength of the game.

The flow of the game mimics the natural flow of a bartending shift. One thing that was added was the "service bar shift" which would focus on learning drinks. It is realistic for a beginning bartender to work shifts in the service bar to learn the drinks before being given main bar shifts where the drink making needs to be more automatic. Each level will add a little more, but also continue to practice things already learned. This idea was also used in the game //Drunken Masters// and anther restaurant game I had played when originally coming up with idea. Looking at games that are already out there to me was one of the most important steps.